Between 2007 and 2012, beer sales fell by 2.3%, or more than 4.8 million barrels.

How are beer sales doing in terms of dollars spent, not millions of barrels sold? Instead of drinking 6 miller lites at 4% each, I may drink two craft russian imperial stouts at 10% each. and those two bottles will probably cost more than the 6 miller lite's cost. And taste a shiat ton better too.

If you spend a little time on Google, you can pretty much find any trend and explanations of alcohol consumption that you want.

If you google "Beer Consumption US", you will find links to studies showing US per capita consumption is up, down, or flat.

Wine consumption seems to be going up, as does spirits.

It was surprising to me, given the federal tax structure, that there wasn't one consistent set of numbers for beer wine and spirits consumption. But since most of this stuff is taxed federally when it is produced (not consumed), I guess there is some interpretation in all the numbers, especially for wine and spirit consumption.

American beer is not "slightly alcoholic", bud is at 5% ABV - roughly the same as the vast majority of pilsner consumed elsewhere. Just because someone doesnt' feel the need to drink that highly alcholic quintuple ipa oatmeal lambic cherry stout that you made out of that homebrew kit to pretend like making beer from an instruction sheet is impressive, doesn't mean what they prefer is "slighlty alcholic."

And in this thread all the neckbeards come out to tell us how dumb we are for not drinking their expensive, double triple malt extra stout reserve crap that they've deluded themselves into thinking tastes good.

j4x:And in this thread all the neckbeards come out to tell us how dumb we are for not drinking their expensive, double triple malt extra stout reserve crap that they've deluded themselves into thinking tastes good.

lilplatinum:American beer is not "slightly alcoholic", bud is at 5% ABV - roughly the same as the vast majority of pilsner consumed elsewhere. Just because someone doesnt' feel the need to drink that highly alcholic quintuple ipa oatmeal lambic cherry stout that you made out of that homebrew kit to pretend like making beer from an instruction sheet is impressive, doesn't mean what they prefer is "slighlty alcholic."

SlothB77:Between 2007 and 2012, beer sales fell by 2.3%, or more than 4.8 million barrels.How are beer sales doing in terms of dollars spent, not millions of barrels sold? Instead of drinking 6 miller lites at 4% each, I may drink two craft russian imperial stouts at 10% each. and those two bottles will probably cost more than the 6 miller lite's cost. And taste a shiat ton better too.

Yeah, I'm not really sure why this is news. There have been hundreds of stories in the last few years about the rise of home brewing and microbreweries (and the recent explosion of flavored vodkas). The decline of wide-distribution beer sales should be filed under D for "duh."

j4x:And in this thread all the neckbeards come out to tell us how dumb we are for not drinking their expensive, double triple malt extra stout reserve crap that they've deluded themselves into thinking tastes good.

I don't know about that stuff the hipsters are drinking, but even a cheap whiskey is better than any beer ever produced. Seriously, beer is piss.

NuttierThanEver:As I've gotten older I am drinking more Whiskey, partly because of taste but also because drinking beer just leaves me feeling blah and bloated after awhile.

Right now I mostly will drink rum. Beer gets me all bloaty and gassy too. But it is weird I really havent drank much the last month. I would get a bottle of rum and keep it but my alcoholic roomate would sniff it out and pound it. I used to be able to keep a nice selection of alcohol in my home.

All I can say is that I was a big surprised to find out that my beer hadn't frozen at below zero temps (F) while sitting in my garage fridge. I guess Leinenkugel Honey Weiss has more alcohol than I thought. Of course, it tasted like slightly sweet water at that temp. Switched to something heavier for the Winter.

lilplatinum:American beer is not "slightly alcoholic", bud is at 5% ABV - roughly the same as the vast majority of pilsner consumed elsewhere. Just because someone doesnt' feel the need to drink that highly alcholic quintuple ipa oatmeal lambic cherry stout that you made out of that homebrew kit to pretend like making beer from an instruction sheet is impressive, doesn't mean what they prefer is "slighlty alcholic."

/farking beer hipsters

Fine, I'll fix the Fark headline for you:

Over the past four years, American consumption of beer has fallen by more than 4.8 million barrels. The main reason? If you guessed "Americans finally realized they were drinking slightly alcoholic piss water" then step right up

there wasn't a beer on that list that I have drank since I turned 21(15 years)...I DID drink many of those before I was of age, because they were cheap...but ever since I was able buy my own beer I stopped drinking shiatty beer...

Over the past four years, American consumption of beer has fallen by more than 4.8 million barrels. The main reason? If you guessed "Americans finally realized they were drinking slightly alcoholic piss water" then step right up

I wasn't aware Americans were drinking that much Guinness - the natty lite of Ireland (which is, tellingly, consumed less by the locals than MGD).

47 is the new 42:lilplatinum: American beer is not "slightly alcoholic", bud is at 5% ABV - roughly the same as the vast majority of pilsner consumed elsewhere. Just because someone doesnt' feel the need to drink that highly alcholic quintuple ipa oatmeal lambic cherry stout that you made out of that homebrew kit to pretend like making beer from an instruction sheet is impressive, doesn't mean what they prefer is "slighlty alcholic."

/farking beer hipsters

Fine, I'll fix the Fark headline for you:

Over the past four years, American consumption of beer has fallen by more than 4.8 million barrels. The main reason? If you guessed "Americans finally realized they were drinking slightly alcoholic piss water" then step right up

Yet in a blind taste test, they would pick the piss water 50% of the time.Same thing happens when wine experts drink unlabeled wine.

jgilb:47 is the new 42: lilplatinum: American beer is not "slightly alcoholic", bud is at 5% ABV - roughly the same as the vast majority of pilsner consumed elsewhere. Just because someone doesnt' feel the need to drink that highly alcholic quintuple ipa oatmeal lambic cherry stout that you made out of that homebrew kit to pretend like making beer from an instruction sheet is impressive, doesn't mean what they prefer is "slighlty alcholic."

/farking beer hipsters

Fine, I'll fix the Fark headline for you:

Over the past four years, American consumption of beer has fallen by more than 4.8 million barrels. The main reason? If you guessed "Americans finally realized they were drinking slightly alcoholic piss water" then step right up

Yet in a blind taste test, they would pick the piss water 50% of the time.Same thing happens when wine experts drink unlabeled wine.

jgilb:Yet in a blind taste test, they would pick the piss water 50% of the time.Same thing happens when wine experts drink unlabeled wine.

Wine perhaps, but not beer- there are simply too many types.

A blindfolded person *might* not be able to tell the difference between Bud, Yuengling or Sam Adams- they're all basic lagers. (I'm pretty sure I could)But tell the difference between Bud and any IPA? Or any porter, or stout? Even people who have never had a single beer could do it instantly, 100% of the time. There's more of a taste difference there than red vs. white wine

I know some people who will suck down Michelob Ultras like they're going out of style. Why not just have one regular beer and save some time and money (not to mention the slosh factor of having to drink 5 Michelob Ultras to even get a buzz)?

lilplatinum:I wasn't aware Americans were drinking that much Guinness - the natty lite of Ireland (which is, tellingly, consumed less by the locals than MGD).

And American small craft beers, which are among the best in the world, are consumed less by the "locals" than Keystone and Busch Light.

I'm sure there were were thousands of Guinness drinkers in America who thought "well, since it's the most popular beer in Ireland, this is what I'm going to drink." And now that you've put them all in their place, that will all stop. Now your local gas station will be able to stop wasting precious space on that one six-pack Guinness facing and add another facing to one the light beers. Good for you.

I've come to the conclusion that there are so many good beers in the US these days that it almost doesn't matter which brewery you choose. I have in my house a winter pack from Sam Adams, Saranac, and Left Hand.. they're all great.

Glockenspiel Hero:jgilb: Yet in a blind taste test, they would pick the piss water 50% of the time.Same thing happens when wine experts drink unlabeled wine.

Wine perhaps, but not beer- there are simply too many types.

A blindfolded person *might* not be able to tell the difference between Bud, Yuengling or Sam Adams- they're all basic lagers. (I'm pretty sure I could)But tell the difference between Bud and any IPA? Or any porter, or stout? Even people who have never had a single beer could do it instantly, 100% of the time. There's more of a taste difference there than red vs. white wine

I've never done a blind test but I can't imagine any adjunct lagers (beers made with rice from the big corporate brewers) being mistaken with even mid-grade stuff like Yuengling or Sam Adams. They just have an empty nothingness where the malt flavor should be.

clkeagle:And American small craft beers, which are among the best in the world, are consumed less by the "locals" than Keystone and Busch Light.

The difference is that the overpriced quintuple IPA made by some neckbeards in Bushwick is not largely considered a "tourist beer". The Irish do, its like Fosters or Becks or Heiniken, local garbage passed to foreigners who see "imported" and think it's teriffic. (Well I guess Becks is consumed by a lot of locals in Bremen and Hamburg).

I'm sure there were were thousands of Guinness drinkers in America who thought "well, since it's the most popular beer in Ireland, this is what I'm going to drink." And now that you've put them all in their place, that will all stop. Now your local gas station will be able to stop wasting precious space on that one six-pack Guinness facing and add another facing to one the light beers. Good for you.

I don't care what people drink, I'll happily drink PBR or Budweiser or Genessee Cream Ale, they all serve a purpose. I just find it hilarious when beer neckbeards use the words "watery" or "barely alcohlic" to describe Bud but will pretend Guinness isn't watery and the same ABV as bud light.

SlothB77:Between 2007 and 2012, beer sales fell by 2.3%, or more than 4.8 million barrels.

How are beer sales doing in terms of dollars spent, not millions of barrels sold? Instead of drinking 6 miller lites at 4% each, I may drink two craft russian imperial stouts at 10% each. and those two bottles will probably cost more than the 6 miller lite's cost. And taste a shiat ton better too.

Yeah, this. You drink a lesser volume of beer when you improve the quality of the beer you're drinking.

lilplatinum:American beer is not "slightly alcoholic", bud is at 5% ABV - roughly the same as the vast majority of pilsner consumed elsewhere. Just because someone doesnt' feel the need to drink that highly alcholic quintuple ipa oatmeal lambic cherry stout that you made out of that homebrew kit to pretend like making beer from an instruction sheet is impressive, doesn't mean what they prefer is "slighlty alcholic."

SlothB77:Just one of these bottles will get the job done, instead of like 6 michelob ultras. And you won't be pissing every 15 minutes either.

[img.fark.net image 640x480]

and yes, that's my own personal collection. (I measure my personal stockpiles of the original version by the caseload.)

Well, if you think "git her done" is the order of the day perhaps, yes. If anyone wants to understand the big picture, I suggest "Ambitious Brew" by Maureen Ogle. First thing is the change from heavy brews to the lighter lagers happened in the mid 19th century because unlike the German drinkers who might sip on a stein for quite some time, the American drinkers wanted to go through several in the same time frame. There's your desire for "drinkability". Given an evening in a bar/pub/club the typical consumption is several drinks, not just one, and the same goes for watching a sporting event or most forms of socialization. Half a dozen full pints of a full bodied brew would have been frowned upon at one time, but our tolerance for over consumption is much higher today.

/The adjuncts also showed up not as a cheap alternative, but a more expensive substitute due to a lack of suitable barley being grown here.

aelat:lilplatinum: American beer is not "slightly alcoholic", bud is at 5% ABV - roughly the same as the vast majority of pilsner consumed elsewhere. Just because someone doesnt' feel the need to drink that highly alcholic quintuple ipa oatmeal lambic cherry stout that you made out of that homebrew kit to pretend like making beer from an instruction sheet is impressive, doesn't mean what they prefer is "slighlty alcholic."

/farking beer hipsters

Alcohol content != flavor.

Nor did I suggest it was. I was suggesting that "5% ABV" is not "slightly alcoholic."

I'm just glad Omaha's become a little niche haven for local craft brews. I can find pretty much any style I want by a brewer who is stationed within 25 min. of my house. Even Storz was brought back as a local company. It's a good time in one of America's drunkest cities.

lilplatinum: Just because someone doesnt' feel the need to drink that highly alcholic quintuple ipa oatmeal lambic cherry stout that you made out of that homebrew kit to pretend like making beer from an instruction sheet is impressive,

See, that's the problem. What kind of damage has to happen to your brain to make you think "I need to see what kind of beverage he's drinking to see if it's impressive or not"? Normal people do not think like this. Normal homebrewers do not do it to impress you, and you should stop to examine why that's the first thing that went through your head.